Cornwall AOG 2016

1 Oct 2016 | Club News

Fantastic AOG in Cornwall

Thanks again to Peter and Simon for bringing together a fantastic 2016 AOG in Cornwall. They both gave a lot of their time to organise the event and many of you commented on the great time you had. The winning format of experience from the committee combined with knowledge and support from the host group produced a good range of events and great facilities to base ourselves from.

I invite eveyone who led an event at the AOG to submit photos and an event report to Simon or me so that we can include these on the web site. You can already visit Facebook and see photos from the events and upload more there.

You will see further down the notes I used for my introductory speech as it is important for all members to know how the club is doing, what our challenges are and the direction the club is heading in. I hope to instill more of a sense of ownership in the members by keeping you updated and including you all in the big decisions that need to be taken for the club.

Look out for updates for the 2017 AOG and put the date in your diary as we would love to see as many of you there as possible for another bumper event.

Richard

chair@goc.org.uk

Decisions on the Election of Trustees and Resolutions at the AGM

The AGM of the GOC took place at 6.00pm on Saturday 6th August in Falmouth.

Around 120 members were in attendance.

1. Election of Trustees

As previously announced there were nine nominations for the 12 vacancies.

Therefore the nine nominated people have been elected as Trustees of GOC.

2. Resolutions

The one resolution received by the due date related to the appointment of the accountant.

This was passed unanimously by those present. In addition four votes were cast on the website, which were all in support.

Full details of the nine nominations for Trustees and the Resolution can be found in the July/August edition of Outdoors and on the website.

AGM 2016 Speech By New Chair Richard Dorling

My first duty is to thank David for the 10 years of service he has given to GOC. Under his leadership the club has grown in both number of members and number of events held. He instigated the GOC website and contributed to the design. After putting in all the effort needed to make GOC a company he then went through the process to make GOC a charity. His clear vision for the club has steered the committee, ensuring the good ship GOC sails on a steady course.

Present gift from the membership

My History With GOC

I joined GOC in Feb 2009 and witnessed some great leadership at all levels so joined the committee shortly after putting 7 GOC years under my belt. I am one of the lucky members who met their future husband on a GOC walk so I have a lot to be thankful to GOC for. I now walk with Cornwall Group and join the canoeing group on their trips.

GOC Current And Future

Present Position

I think GOC is in a strong position at the moment. Membership is strong, plenty of events on, balance sheet is healthy and there are no emergencies.

My Approach

I am not concerned with numbers of events or numbers of members so much as whether members are getting what they want out of GOC.

The committee are never going to please all of the people all of the time. For example we recently saw some women only events which have been hugely successful thanks to Al's efforts. It did not come controversy free with some thinking it was sexist and unconstitutional. Most importantly we saw many female members getting events that they wanted to take part in. In the past I have been against women only events or youth only events but Al has shown me these can work, that the club benefits as a whole so we will embrace this approach. At the end of the day if anyone feels excluded they can run the same event for all members.

Whilst I have been on the committee I have been approached many times by people telling me the committee should do this or that would be good for GOC or why aren't we doing what ODL does – my response is always the same; GOC is a club, run by the members and if it is not working the way you want it to then you must do something about it – join the committee, lead an event, lead a group, edit the magazine, put forward articles, give your time and ideas. GOC can only be as good as each and every one of us.

Remember that the committee are volunteers and our place is to facilitate members rather than carry them. The membership are the true powerhouse of the club as they are the volunteers putting events on, Group Coordinators coordinate events and members representing the club are the biggest resource for recruiting new members.

So in answer to those questions of why GOC is not like this or that it is because you, all of you are not pitching in to make GOC the club you think it should be.

The Future

We have traditional alternatives: ODL, CycleOut, Gerry's walks and newer forms evolving such as Meetup, and Facebook some of which are free to use. GOC still offers something different to each of these so we have our place and we will continue to forge links with any club, organisation or individual to our mutual benefit.

Let's think what you can get for £12: 4 coffees, an M&S Meal Deal, 3 inner tubes, admission to an NT property. You get where I am going with this – GOC membership is incredibly cheap and good value for money. We will continue to provide good value for money and ensure all who use GOC pay for its upkeep.

The magazine will continue as long as members receiving the publication are willing to pay for the cost of producing it and we have members willing to edit it.

The future is online though. The current website uses old technology and is becoming unsupportable so we will need to budget for a new web site. We will encourage more online usage to reduce the cost and tedium of many of the admin tasks that members do not wish to volunteer to do. To encourage good online practice and encourage unusual events we will be highlighting aspirational event listings and aspirational events by giving a small prize – the first goes to Pat Horgan for consistently good event listings using best practices which available on the web pages (more details on this to follow).

Quiz

The winners were Stephen Blakeway's team, Pink Rats, who scored a remarkable 55 out of 60. They defeated the English Opium Eaters, David Capron's team, who have won the last two quizzes, by a single point.

First prize was £45.00, second prize was £27.00, third prize was £18.00.

A majority of the prizes were donated back and given to the local LGBT youth group that Steve and Simon run.

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